THE SMASHING MACHINE

The Smashing Machine marks a new era in the Safdie Brothers' filmography, with the eponymous brothers splitting up at the peak of their power due to a growingly dysfunctional relationship, and are willing to explore new ventures.

One of the more intriguing aspects of the Safdie Brothers' solo projects is which elements of their prior films are present in them, akin to a band breaking up to pursue solo projects.

With The Smashing Machine, Benny Safdie explores the drug abuse of Mark Kerr and his self-destructive tendencies through an observational, intimate lens with a melancholic tone to it, jettisoning the chaotic energy of his prior works for a restrained and sombre narrative.

The Smashing Machine is more interested in the relationship between Mark Kerr (Dwayne Johnson) and Mark Coleman(Ryan Bader) and luxuriates in the thrills and glory of their wrestling careers, which Dawn (Emily Blunt), Mark Kerr's girlfriend, is unable to comprehend.

Hence, it feels as if The Smashing Machine also exorcises Safdie's own personal demons with his brother through Dawn and Mark Kerr's abusive relationship, and both of them are a terrible influence on each other. It's not too hard to see the parallels with the Safdies and Dawn and Mark.

Fortunately, The Smashing Machine is held together by a wonderful central performance by Dwayne Johnson, who brings an innate magnetism and vulnerability to the table, with his towering physicality resembling that of an overgrown toddler.

Hence, there is something of a parallel between the Rock and Mark Kerr. In The Smashing Machine documentary, Mark Kerr is constantly juxtaposed with his self-image of extreme physicality and swagger, and his striking vulnerability and an intimate, sweet boyishness to it.

The Rock would have a parallel career trajectory with his first run of professional wrestling being a failure, and reinventing himself as a heel post the "Die Rocky Die" incident, and his career being filled with major reinventions with the "Final Boss" moniker in his legacy return.

The Rock's Hollywood career consists of him playing himself and a caricature of himself coasting off his brand appeal as a brash one-liner quippy action hero, lending an exaggerated meta-textual persona to his artifice, bereft of sincerity.

With The Smashing Machine, this allows the Rock to reinvent himself in his career post his failures with Black Adam and his other headlined action blockbusters, leading to diminished results at the box office and with the audience, and his turn towards arthouse material.

However, The Smashing Machine. It is an unconventional anti-biopic with its difficulty in reconciling the indie-narrative and raw, gritty aesthetic with the traditional crowd-pleasing, awards-bait biopic genre.

After all, the Smashing Machine is shot with handheld cameras, crosscuts, long cuts, intense observational close-ups, and an observational approach to the wrestling genre, reflecting a gritty indie narrative more akin to independent cinema, to the likes of Raging Bull.

However, The Smashing Machine is conventional in its storytelling choices. It opens with a voiceover from Mark Kerr, signposts its themes awkwardly, consists of diegetic music playing rock songs, needle drops, and plays like a conventional sports biopic sans the sensationalism.

Hence, The Smashing Machine is caught in the nexus of these two approaches, unable to reconcile these two contradictory impulses. This sits right at the heart of this film's form and function.

Overall, The Smashing Machine is a well-crafted film despite its structural shortcomings that coast on a wonderful central performance from Dwayne Johnson while reinventing themes of male glory and self-destructive personas within an anti-sports biopic.

Writing: 8/10

Direction: 8/10

Cinematography: 9/10

Acting: 9/10

Editing: 8/10

Sound: 8/10

Score: 7/10

Prod Design: 8/10

Casting: 10/10

Effects: 9/10

Overall Score: 8.4/10